The Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises

Conference: 27- 29 May 2024; Amsterdam, the Netherlands

CONFERENCE REPORT

Introduction

"The Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises" conference was a landmark event that officially launched the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe. The conference was co-organized with the University of Amsterdam and a host of distinguished partners* as well as the Republics of Vanuatu and Bangladesh.

The conference brought together an extraordinary assembly of participants over the course of three days at a critical moment for international law, human rights and ecological justice.

The past few years have seen striking developments in international human rights law, in the concept of rights of nature, as well as around a new crime of ecocide, at both national and international levels. Significant attention to the legacies of colonialism and slavery has revealed the extent to which the ecological crisis is a racial justice crisis. Attention to the devastating ecological impact of war, meanwhile, is breathing new life into underused elements of the law of armed conflict.

This year, 2024, marks a high point as we anticipate advisory opinions from three international courts on state obligations in the face of climate change: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, and the International Court of Justice. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is also drafting his first ever policy on prosecuting environmental crimes.

At the conference, leading voices from across these initiatives came together to take stock of progress, foster dialogue that bridges theory with actionable strategies, and propel the promise of international law into a new era of multi-species care, kinship and justice.

To further explore these vital discussions, view the video recordings of panels and keynotes below.

* Organising partners: The Government of Vanuatu; The Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; University of Fiji; University of Hawai’i Mānoa; National University of Singapore Centre for International Law; Centre for Climate Justice Bangladesh; Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance; Lauterpacht Centre for International Law; LUISS; UCLA School of Law Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment; UCLA School of Law’s International and Comparative Law Program; UCLA School of Law Promise Institute for Human Rights.

MONDAY MAY 27

Day 1 - International Criminal Law and Environmental Protection

“But I wonder, if the Rome Statute was being drafted today, what would it look like? Would it include ecocide as a separate international crime? Would it include the liability of legal persons? How would it deal with the problem of attributing responsibility to multinational corporations? How would the jurisdictional model of the Rome Statute respond to harms that have a global dimension? Will the jurisdiction of the ICC still be determined by national boundaries? What kind of Rome Statute would today’s pressing concerns and today’s legal imagination produce?”

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan of the International Criminal Court

The Conference opened on Monday, 27 May with welcoming remarks by co-organizers Professor Kate Mackintosh and Professor Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh; Professor Mireille van Eechoud, Dean of the Amsterdam Law School, and Professor André Nollkaemper, University Professor of International Law and Sustainability, University of Amsterdam, and Professor Michael Waterstone, Dean of UCLA School of Law. Ms. Anne-Sophie Vivier, representing the government of Vanuatu, was Master of Ceremonies.

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan of the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched the substantive session on the evolving role of international criminal law in safeguarding the environment with a powerful keynote address. She highlighted ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s commitment to utilize the existing Rome Statute to combat environmental crimes, and emphasized the imperative and the potential for international law to evolve to respond to contemporary crises. “We know that unchecked environmental degradation poses an existential threat to the world as we know it,” Deputy Prosecutor Khan remarked. “The international legal system, including the ICC, stands at a crucial juncture where we must remain relevant and respond to this crisis before it is too late.”

Watch the full keynote below.

Read the keynote here.

Panel: Conflict, Environmental Harm & International Criminal Law

Following the keynote, the Promise Institute Europe's Executive Director, Professor Kate Mackintosh, chaired our first panel with distinguished speakers Mr. Moneim Adam, Professor Kevin Jon Heller, Professor Nataliia Hendel, and Professor Maximo Langer.

Mackintosh set the historical context for the discussion, noting that although discussions around ecocide, and an international crime of causing severe environmental harm, had been around since the 1970s, the time might now be ripe for real progress in this area.. Expanding upon the themes of Deputy Prosecutor Khan’s keynote, Professor Heller described the unrealized potential of existing Rome Statute crimes to hold state and non-state actors - including corporate officers - to account for environmental destruction. Promise Europe is supporting Heller’s drafting of a policy paper for the Prosecutor, which he aims to launch at the end of 2024.

Professor Langer underscored the importance of the OTP’s policy paper, while also reflecting on ICL’s anthropocentric roots originating from the Nuremberg trials and the challenges this presents for addressing environmental issues. He emphasized the critical role of domestic jurisdictions in prosecuting these crimes - an avenue highlighted by Professor Hendel’s discussion of Ukraine, where ecocide is recognized as a crime under national law. She summarized the ongoing investigations under Ukraine’s ecocide law and the prosecution of environmental crimes in the wake of the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, including the devastating effects of the 2023 destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Meanwhile, Mr. Adam provided insights into environmental destruction as both driver and consequence of conflict and atrocity crimes, drawing from his experience in Sudan, which has endured decades of interlinked conflict and environmental degradation.

Watch the full panel discussion below.

“The Rome statute reflects the Nuremberg paradigm not only by having an anthropocentric view, but also concentrating on a specific set of atrocities that are thought of often as the worst things human beings or groups of human beings can do to other human beings … Those crimes are still necessary, but they are insufficient to address all of the problems of our day.”

Maximo Langer - Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law

The day concluded with a performance by Indigenous Senegalese performer Mame N’Diack Thiam, whose poetry and music brought the session to a joyful close as we moved into the Promise Europe launch reception.

Videos

Keynote
Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, International Criminal Court

Panel
Conflict, Environmental Harm & International Criminal Law

TUESDAY MAY 28

Day 2 - Advisory Opinions and Climate Change

“The pending advisory opinions on climate change are excellent opportunities to reinforce the clear duties of States to protect the human rights of all people, without discrimination, against the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.”

Volker Türk - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Tuesday, 28 May began with a keynote speech by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, underscoring the intrinsic link between human rights and the environment. He insisted that it is “well past the hour” for countries to align climate laws with human rights obligations, called for a transformation of our economies and societies to put people and planet first, and called out the injustice of the disparate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities.

“The impacts of environmental degradation often perpetuate historical and ongoing racism, discrimination and injustice rooted in the legacies of enslavement and colonialism,” he remarked. “For this reason, it is key that climate policies take into account and combat racial and other forms of discrimination and inequalities.” He outlined various key threats the world is facing, praised recent achievements by states and civil society actors, and emphasized that climate justice must include four key elements of transitional justice – truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence.

Read the keynote here.

Watch the full keynote below.

“I have spoken to Indigenous individuals in the South Pacific who articulate the loss of land as a death.”

Alofipo So’oalo Fleur Ramsay - International indigenous and human rights lawyer

H.E. Ambassador M. Riaz Hamidullah of Bangladesh to The Netherlands then delivered opening remarks for the day, dedicated to the historic advisory opinions on state responsibilities in the face of climate change anticipated and just delivered from three international courts: the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Just the week before, ITLOS had handed down its groundbreaking opinion that greenhouse gas emissions constitute marine pollution under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, with all the consequences that entails, providing a thrilling context for the conversations.

“Here we have an authoritative statement that land-based activities that are producing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that are absorbed by the ocean *must* be regulated by states. This is very significant. And this includes enforcement as well.”

Nilufer Oral - Director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore.

Panel 1: Unravelling the ITLOS Advisory Opinion: Climate Change, Justice, and the Future of the Law of the Sea

This panel delved into the groundbreaking implications of the Tribunal’s opinion, the critical role of evidence in the proceedings, and the potential impact on the future of climate change litigation and the law of the sea. The panel was chaired by Ms. Mónica Feria-Tinta, who began by offering context and analysis of the opinion and its significance, and featured panelists Ms. Naima Te Maile Fifita, Dr. Shobha Maharaj, and Professor Nilufer Oral.

“It's been a long journey to get here and it’s a historic moment," emphasised Feria-Tinta, who is involved in the advisory proceedings. Professor Oral explained the significant long-term implications of the opinion, emphasizing that the binding state obligations articulated by the court - that go beyond the consensus-based Paris Agreement and UNFCCC - cannot be ignored by states, and will send them back to review national legislation. Oral also stressed the unanimity of the Tribunal’s opinion.

As a legal advocate for the Coalition for Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), which submitted the request for the advisory opinion, Ms. Fifita offered her first-hand account of the proceedings, and also spoke to the potential of the opinion to protect small island developing states (also known as ‘SIDS’). Dr. Maharaj, a leading climate change scientist who provided evidence on behalf of COSIS in the proceedings, highlighted the need for more research and data from SIDS, explaining, for example, that while “those of us on the ground know there are major problems with health and migration”, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “could not make a statement about it because there is not enough published evidence.” Ms. Fifita also flagged the importance of including indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing. “We should set our standards high for scientific monitoring”, she said, hoping for “more room” for scientific knowledge from indigenous communities “to be used and seen as best available scientific knowledge.”

Watch the full panel discussion below.

Panel 2: Exploring the IACHR Advisory Proceedings: Environmental Rights and Climate Justice

As the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was conducting its second set of hearings in Brazil, this panel brought together a diverse group of experts to explore the significance of these proceedings and the unique perspective of the Caribbean region in the context of climate change and human rights.

Chaired by Professor Fernando Lusa Bordin, this panel featured Professor David Berry, Alofipo So’oalo Fleur Ramsay, and Professor Shaista Shameem. Professor Bordin offered an overview of the broader implications of the advisory proceedings for international human rights law, while Professor Berry explained the heightened legal significance of the opinion for SIDS and Caribbean states, where impacts of climate change like sea level rise are threatening lives and livelihoods with explicit urgency. “The outcome of the Court’s Advisory Opinion is more important for SIDS and Caribbean states than any region in the world”, he said, and yet “SIDS have contributed 0.05% to the climate crisis.”

Professor Shameem underscored the critical importance of the right to health, the right to life and the right to a healthy environment, all of which are inextricably connected, and the implications of the IACHR’s interpretation of these rights for climate change litigation and policy. She advised that we must always consider the wide range of environmental impacts on human health, including the disparate impacts on the health of those in the Global South. While Professor Shameem focused on the intersections of environmental justice and human rights, Alofipo So’oalo Ramsay highlighted the relationship between the environment and Indigenous rights in particular, emphasizing the significance of the environment for the right to life of place-based peoples. She further reminded the audience that we have scientific evidence that demonstrates the health impacts of colonization, and that climate change can and should be framed as a form of colonization.

Watch the full panel discussion below.

“There is quite often a binary distinction made between humans on one hand and nature on the other. But for many indigenous peoples, there is no distinction made between people and nature. It’s like a continuum: you’re a human being and part of nature.”

Shaista Shameem, Vice Chancellor of the University of Fiji and Dean of the JDP School of Law

“Since about four years ago, I can count the times we’ve been told that what we’re trying to do is too ambitious. But with over 100 states and the UNGA resolution adopted by consensus, and over 90 states’ and IO submissions before the ICJ, I guess ‘ambitious’ has become the benchmark for us. So if it seems too ambitious, that must be the way to go, precisely because what we need is more ambitious action.”

Nicole Ponce - Environmental and human rights lawyer-advocate

Panel 3: The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: Evidence, State Responsibility, and the Voices of the Most Vulnerable

Our final panel addressed the historic request from the UN General Assembly for an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice. The panel was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Cheryl E. Bazard of the Bahamas, who offered a comprehensive analysis of the ICJ’s advisory opinion and its potential impact on global climate governance, and included panelists Dr. Emmanuel Awuku, Professor Andre Nollkaemper, Professor Patrícia Galvão Teles, and Ms. Nicole Ponce.

Professor Nollkaemper offered a deep dive into the question of causation in the context of climate change and State responsibility, exploring the potential of the ICJ opinion to advance the law in this area, and also spoke to the role of scientific evidence in shaping legal accountability for climate change, building on conversations from the day’s prior two panels. Mr. Akuwu explained that the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States believed the ICJ’s advisory opinion has the potential to be a game-changer in the global response to climate change, by clarifying the obligations of states under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations against the adverse effects of climate change, as well as the legal consequences for states that have caused significant harm to the climate system.

As a member of the International Law Commission, Professor Galvão Teles offered her analysis on state responsibility under international law and the pressing need for transnational cooperation in combating climate change. In detailing the huge opportunities that the ICJ, the ILC and other international legal actors have in shaping the fight against climate change, she summarized, “Everything boils down to a very simple message, which is the fact that states need to do more – not only from a moral and political point of view, but also from a legal point of view, in order to meet their obligations.” Next, Ms. Ponce shared her personal testimony on the impacts of climate change on youth and vulnerable communities, stressing the importance of including young voices in legal processes, and highlighting groundbreaking actions that have been taken by her network of youth activists in the fight for intergenerational justice.

Watch the full panel discussion below.

Videos

Keynote
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk

Panel 2
Exploring the IACHR Advisory Proceedings: Environmental Rights and Climate Justice

Panel 1
Unravelling the ITLOS Advisory Opinion: Climate Change, Justice, and the Future of the Law of the Sea

Panel 3
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: Evidence, State Responsibility, and the Voices of the Most Vulnerable

WEDNESDAY MAY 29

Day 3 - Practitioners’ Forum.
Science and the Law: Collaborative Strategies for Future Progress

The final day of the conference brought practitioners together to focus on evidence and the relationship between science and the law. How should we conceptualize, gather and present the evidence needed to drive positive change? Through expert-led group discussions, participants shared and developed collective strategies to ensure that intersectional perspectives are better reflected in environment-related legal initiatives, and harness the power of international law for human rights, environmental protection, and ecological justice.

The day began with a deeply moving keynote from Mr. Julian Aguon, who highlighted the importance of self-determination and shared powerful takeaways from his legal activism work at Blue Ocean Law. Aguon emphasized the critical role of indigenous perspectives in the fight for ecological justice and the necessity of centering marginalized voices in legal advocacy.

Professor Christina Eckes then chaired our morning session, which focused on framing the concepts and goals of the movement: defining the “what” practitioners are fighting for, before the afternoon session delved into the “how”. The session featured contributions from Dr. Daphina Misiedjan, Mrs. Fadjar Schouten-Korwa, and Mr. Solomon Yeo, who together highlighted the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms on indigenous peoples, small island nations, and children, including those of future generations. Dr. Misiedjan foregrounded the intergenerational impacts of air pollution on infants in the womb before birth, stressing the importance of framing the health dimensions of environmental harm in intersectional and justice-based terms. Mr. Yeo offered insights from the Solomon Islands illustrating the urgency of fighting ecocide in the Pacific islands, while Mrs. Schouten-Korwa further emphasized the importance of amplifying the voices of indigenous peoples around the world and learning from their expertise.

Our afternoon session, chaired by Professor Ingo Venzke, focused on connecting science and storytelling in legal advocacy. The discussion featured Mr. Michael Kakande, Ms. Jojo Mehta, Ms. Watna Mori, and Professor Nabil Ahmed, who all further underscored the morning’s emphasis on centering indigenous knowledge and youth perspectives.

Professor Ahmed presented an overview of environmental justice projects by INTERPRT, a research agency that conducts spatial and visual investigations on conflict and environmental destruction, including collaborative work with indigenous communities impacted by ecocide, while Ms. Mehta shared the advocacy strategies she uses, including amplifying Indigenous voices and stories, with the Stop Ecocide campaign. Mr. Kakande offered insights from his work with pan-African networks bringing youth voices to climate conversations, and spoke to the impact of the legacies of colonialism on current environmental struggles on the African continent. In speaking further about structural and systemic injustice, Ms. Mori highlighted the urgent needs for more scientific research to be published by and for the Global South, and for greater recognition of indigenous knowledge holders as expert witnesses in climate change cases litigated in Western legal systems.

CONCLUSION

“The Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises” conference has already proven to be a remarkable event, bringing together experts, scholars, and practitioners to discuss critical issues at the intersection of international law and environmental protection. The insights shared over these three days have not only highlighted the challenges we face but have also inspired hope and action towards a more just and sustainable world. As we move forward, the collective commitment and collaboration demonstrated here will be essential in turning the promise of international law into reality.

The conference concluded with expressions of gratitude to everyone who joined for this inaugural event, with anticipation for the next gathering already building. Concretely, preliminary work was launched on the development of a collaborative platform or sanctuary where legal professionals, activists, and scholars working towards environmental and racial justice can gather, exchange ideas, and collaborate to confront the pressing ecological justice questions facing our planet.

Together, we can and will make a difference!